Our journey to create a charming & vintage chic wedding on a budget (with a few ruffles around the edges)

Hello friends! It’s been SO LONG…but if you’ve had your own wedding in the past, I’m quite sure you understand how busy it gets the closer you get to the big day!

I wanted to update you with lots of the details I couldn’t share BEFORE the wedding! Of course, the first of them being THE DRESS!!

Those are the pictures from the Justin Alexander website, but I chose to go without the fancy beaded sash for my outdoor wedding in a field! Soooo, here I am in the dress (and the link to some of the bridal portraits if you want to see them!).

I know I also mentioned awhile back that I would be giving some really cute gifts to my bridesmaids, but I couldn’t put them on here yet. My bridesmaid and old roommate Tiffany is a multi-talented long-time friend of mine, and she handmade clutches for each of my bridesmaids, and we made them all different colors:

I also put some goodies in there for the girls, including lip gloss, tissues, gum & the crystal and pearl earrings to wear for the wedding! I think everyone looked so cute with them at the wedding:

Signage

I had SO much fun with the outdoor signage for the wedding:

Hotel Gifts

Our hotel gifts were really fun too…we put two 24 ox. mason jars together with a handle. One had lemonade mix & a mini bottle of sweet tea vodka, and one was full of Chex mix! Each one had a welcome note and directions from that specific hotel to the wedding location. The Holiday Inn lady told our guests that it was the cutest gift she’s seen in the 3 years she’s worked there!

Guest Favors / Names Cards / Drinkware!

If you’re marrying “Mason,” you absolutely MUST use mason jars, right??

We bought bulk mason jars from a wholesaler, monogrammed them with vinyl monograms (“M” for Murchison) and then tied raffia around the top (bows for girls, knots for guys of course!). We then secured an old price tag with metal edging and I had handwritten each person’s name on them. I hung a clothesline outside the tent at the welcome table with the seating charts showing people where to find their seats! Then guests used them all night and then took them home as a souvenir!

♥ ♥ ♥

I will definitely be giving you more details and pictures in the coming weeks…we have not seen out professional pictures yet (these are all from friends and family!) so I am excited to share those when they’re finished!

Our wedding was PERFECT…everything we thought it would be and more. And so far, with a big three weeks under my belt, marriage is great. We are enjoying not running around like chickens with our heads cut off, and we are really happy to be with each other all the time! I’ll leave you with another couple pictures…I can’t let you leave without a single picture of the hubs!!!

Invitations are out! And I am SO excited because now I can share them with you! (There definitely are still people who have not received them, but they probably won’t see this post before they arrive in the mail!)

Without further adieu, here they are!

The COOLEST part of these invites is that the barn at the top is the actual barn in my parent’s back yard from our Save the Dates, which will be the view from the spot we’re getting married at. The photographer took a picture, then our designer cut all the background out and switched it over to a sketch so that we could put the barn from our backyard on the invites!! I am so excited about it 🙂

i loved the simplicity and sweetness of these, and wanted to do something similar. for the replies, i thought it would be easier and less costly to do a perforated postcard reply card with the details listed above it, and also give people an option of RSVP-ing online to our wedding website at mywedding.com.

I LOVE our invitations and I am excited for everyone to get them and start replying 🙂 It starts feeling VERY real when all this starts happening…no more messing around, we are really getting married in 50 DAYS!

What an adorable stamp my mom’s friend Misty got for us!

Ready to go!

Mom even took a picture of herself sending them in the mail…hilarious!!

YAY YAY YAY!!! It’s almost here and I am really very excited 🙂

I also had my last dress fitting last night for my bridal portraits next weekend (it has to be steamed next week so we have to put it in by Monday)! It looks great and fits perfectly!

And this weekend is MOVING WEEKEND!!! I am very excited to be in my beautiful new house! I will share pictures soon of the house and all the fun moving excitment. Our family friend Misty is also throwing me a shower on Sunday and I am so looking forward to that too!! Pictures to come from that too!

No….not “THE” Bachelorette from ABC…from me. Sorry if you were excited and now you aren’t. 🙂

This past weekend was my bachelorette party in Holden Beach, NC. I took the day off on Friday and went down Thursday night with my friend Lauren, who graciously opened her family’s beach up for the girls this weekend. We had a BLAST and I think everyone really enjoyed their vacation! I wanted to share some highlights…

The weekend started off with some lovely gifts and yummy drinks! Lauren made goodie bags for all the rooms that included pink flip flops, pink cups with their names on them and Sharpies to sign all everyone’s cups! I got white flip flops, a cup, a pink “Bride to Be” tank top and personalized Sharpies that say “Michelle Murchison.” 🙂

Friday night, we went to Paradise Cafe and did karaoke which was VERY fun and hilarious! Saturday night was out big night out and we went to Provisions for dinner, a delicious place on the island. When we were about to go in, Lauren said that she had a game for me – all the girls have envelopes with scavenger hunt cards to give to be throughout dinner like “Take a picture with the bartender” or “Sing with the band.” Some were even interactive, like “Ice the person who gave you this card” which came from Tiffany and it was hysterical. (from the recent phenomenon “Bros Icing Bros” with Smirnoff Ice….very funny.)

I got the last card from my friend Katie, and it said “Go outside and take a picture with all your girls.” So we all headed outside and down the stairs and found this…

In the limo, we played another game. The girls had asked Mason 15-20 questions about our relationship and I had to see if I had the same answers he did. Mason’s answers were so sweet and actually very true – I matched him almost exactly on every answer! I really enjoyed that part, it was so much fun. Then we went to Wilmington and went to a few bars and finished it off with NY Pizza before we got back in the limo and SNOOZED. All of us. Haha!

We had a wonderful time playing on the beach, spending time with each other and going out and having fun. They also threw me a surprise lingerie shower on Saturday afternoon and it was so much fun! My friends bent over backwards to make things special and I appreciate all of it so much!

…and then I woke up on Sunday and realized I’m getting married next month!

Mason said “That sounds CRAZY!” And he’s right! We are excited, but there’s a lot to do between now and then, like move me into our new place this weekend. Fun fun fun!

how do i begin to express my love for a good ‘ol fashioned dance party?? mason and i love music, we love people and more than anything, we love lots of people dancing to good music!

finding a DJ was an important search…we wanted to find someone with great personality who will do a great job with our wedding, get the party started and offer ALL of the music that is near and dear to us (you know, like Usher’s “Yeah,” anything by Outkast and every Michael Jackson or Prince song ever made).

and as every good post deserves, some photos….

the best of the WORST DJ’s:

the lovely adam sandler in the wedding singer. the second guy is the terrible DJ in loveactually, in case you weren’t sure. he’s the one that plays “puppy love” for all the lovers out there. ha! oh wait, i have to throw this one in too:

ew…just ew!

and NOW for the best example of an awesome DJ….

oh snap, it’s TONY.

(from The Ellen Degeneres Show, if you’re not familiar!)

ahhhh, but i digress.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

my friend amy referred us to Troy Adams, of T-Time Entertainment, and he is wonderful!! we (especially mason because of flag football bonding moments) instantly got along great with Troy and really liked him a lot, so we are looking forward to working with him and having him be a part of the wedding! he sent over his song list the week after we met, and WHOA – talk about songs!! he has them all! the list he sent to me has 4,144 songs on it and he said it ‘had not been updated in awhile’ and that if there was anything we didn’t see on here that we wanted he would just download it and add it to his list!

if you are in the charlotte, nc area looking for a great DJ, i already highly recommend Troy! and i will follow up after the wedding with a reflection on the greatness of the Murchison Wedding Dance Party. 🙂

maybe we’ll take a video of this dance…there will be a big white dress coming through as soon as Cupid comes over the speakers. just sayin’.

this post is dedicated to all the engaged and especially newly engaged ladies out there looking for where to start with ideas for everything wedding (and dedicated to my sweet, sweet friend kerianne who just got engaged herself)! i wanted to share a few (well, it may turn into more than a few) of the websites that i have clung to since january for inspiration, ideas and advice.

wedding blogs – i have combed the internet for my favorite wedding blogs and here are my favorites: Project Wedding (great DIY ideas and lots of inspiration), Classic Bride (beautiful photographs of real weddings and great links to vendors and style ideas), MyWedding.com (gives you the tools to makes your invite list, a free wedding website which we are using for our guests, and you can have people RSVP there too!), 100 Layer Cake (really great ideas all around), Love and Lavender (you will want to copy everything here!) and Green Wedding Shoes (you can look at posts categorized by your type of wedding, from outdoor to barn to church, etc. and the photos are just gorgeous!).

wedding photography sites – i look at a lot of wedding photography sites. alot. i loooove looking at LA photogs who photograph crazy expensive, over the top weddings because like i always say, i think you can pretty much figure out how to do anything that you really love for much cheaper (if not free!) with creativity and some time and effort. here is my favorite “fancy photog” – Jasmine Star – her personality really comes through on her blog, but her photos are absolutely stunning but very true-to-life. her subjects are always oh-my-gosh breathtaking and the venues are unbelievable! click on “most recent posts” to see her blog, and check out that dress on this link today with the huge rosettes all over the skirt…i LOVEloveLOVE that dress! now, as far as local charlotte, nc area wedding photography, there are so many great ones! here are some of the very best: of course, our photographers Elizabeth Scott Photography (love!), The Schultze’s (another husband/wife team…so creative and fun!), Seth Snider (a friend of mine with a great eye for beauty, and such a NICE guy!!), Visio Photography (every photo on here is absolutely beautiful) and Kristin Vining (she totally rocks the charlotte wedding scene, that is for sure…she’s ll over the place!). i do have to tell you, these people get booked up FAST so start contacting them early!! it’s so much fun to meet photographers, they are just amazing and fun and super creative!

ShopStyle.com – i am using this to find dresses for all the wedding occasions (showers, rehearsal, bachelorette, etc.), looks for shoes online and really to look for anything! you can search for certain colors, styles and keywords for clothing, bags and shoes and it pulls from websites all over the internet to find what you’re looking for! for example, if you type in “purple ruffle shoes,” here’s what you get!

since i pretty much just overloaded you with fun and exciting links, i will leave it at that for now! i hope these things inspire you as you start (or finish) planning your wedding!

i have bridal shower #2 this weekend in charlotte and i am so very excited!! my MOH katie is coming into town and i am excited!! in honor of this, i give you another photo of katie and me:

just wanted to post this article that a friend sent to me – it really explains a lot about how i grew up and what i felt like, although i was diagnosed at 18 months instead of 12 years so things were similar but different at the same time. it’s inspiring!

juvenile rheumatoid arthritis is a very interesting disease…i have read and heard it called “the invisible disease” because if i cover up all my scars and i’m not limping too bad, you can’t even tell i have it! but it’s definitely alive and well in my body lately so it’s been a little bit harder to hide; in fact, i just got up from my desk to help someone and it was a sloooow start to get my ankles going!

here’s a sweet little picture of my and my baby brother. if you look closely, you will notice the full leg cast i have on my right leg – probably a knee or ankle surgery but i don’t remember (i’m sure mom could tell me). this was a common theme in pictures at the time 🙂

i really didn’t spend much time in my life feeling sorry for myself (i don’t think…correct me i’m wrong, mom and friends!). it has been more difficult in the past couple years than ever before. The severity has been especially real to me since we got engaged because i’ve been feeling so badly during a time that’s supposed to be fun and exciting, with lots of showers and parties and people around you. My normal personality is completely outgoing, energetic, fun and social but i feel that changing because i don’t have the energy anymore. i’m not gonna lie, sometimes i also get overwhelmed at the thought of marrying mason and automatically putting all the physical, emotional and financial strain of my disease on him. i feel sometimes like it was enough that my family had to deal with that my entire life and so now i just need to take care of myself. (my family never made me feel like this at all, i just do that to myself.)

i am learning a lot about marriage through struggling with this though. the point is, you marry someone regardless of what “might” happen in the future because no matter what happens, you want to go through your life with that person by your side. i have no idea what’s going to happen to my with my arthritis – i get overwhelmed thinking it will get way worse before it gets better – that i will have 80-year-old blown up, swollen ankles within 5 years that won’t stop swelling and cause my mobility to decrease greatly. BUT, for all i know, my ankle specialist will finally give me the okay to get new ankles in the next few years and i will be running circles around mason! i have no idea. i also don’t know what good and bad things mason might go through in the future but i really want to be there for them.

none of us is perfect, and God is perfecting us daily when we ask for His help. that’s all i’ve got for you! i usually have a lot more positive and encouraging things to say, but sometimes that’s really it – God has taken care of me up to this point and He will continue. He never changes, even when we do. it’s hard to understand from our human perspective, especially since we personify God so often and compare Him to the greatest people we know – but that’s not Him! He is so far beyond what we can ever imagine – His faithfulness, love and care are completely unselfish and neverending. and He doesn’t want us to hole ourselves up in our houses in fear that no one will accept and love us with the flaws that we have.

whew, sorry to preach there but it’s simply true! this post went a little bit differently than the one paragraph i had planned on writing but i hope maybe it helps someone who’s struggling.

it’s also important to learn to take things in stride and realize the humor in not-so-funny things. like i said, i have had this disease my entire life and had some major surgeries and hospitalizations because of it. but sometimes it’s just funny that i am an 85-year-old woman in a 26-year-old body and my friends like to point that out sometimes, and i appreciate that. i want to be approachable and relate to people and i’m glad that don’t see me a fragile, weird, sad girl.

as i told mason last week when i was trying out a really awesome dance move in the mall to make him laugh “they said i wouldn’t even walk, and now LOOK AT THESE MOVES!”

my roomie and me breaking it down at a Christmas benefit in charlotte in my brunette-headed days

tonight, the unaccomplishable was accomplished. the unheard of was heard. the unbelievable was believed.

i finally found wedding shoes. on my porch . in a box from shoewoo.com.

now now, before i go telling you anything about the shoes i need to tell you that this was destiny, because when i opened the first box, there was a yellow lollipop stuck in a card that read “THANK WOO!” if you know me at all, you know that this is exactly what i was say to everyone if i owned a company called “shoe woo.” when i checked out of the grocery store, i would even say to the checkout guy “thank woo very much!” just to see the reaction and to make myself laugh. i really would! ask mason!

so as you can imagine, i LOL-ed all by my lonesome when i opened that box and pulled out my yellow cloth peep toe wedges. and i WOO’ed. then i opened by other box of new patent off white peep toes. and i WOO’ed again! this WOO’ing has not stopped and it won’t stop until i get to show all my friends AND until my mom calls me back because she will never believe that i have actually settled on shoes!

before i get too crazy here, i will tell you that these are not the “ruffly, lavender peep toe shoes” that i was pining for but when it gets close to the point where you have to get your dress altered for bridal portraits, a girl has to start making some decisions! i ran across this site last week and saw that these shoes were actually very cute and i thought they might work perfectly so mason measured the highest wedges i own with his new tape measure (a whole 2″ high!!!!) and ordered the yellows and whites to see what worked best. and i actually like them both, but trying them with the dress will be the test.

either way, i’m keeping these yellow wedges b/c they are totally cute 🙂

SO, it has been a good day at my house. what about yours??

(sorry, no pics today! i don’t actually want to put the shoes on here but i’m sure you can find them on the site if you look hard enough!)

well friends, i am on a ROLL this week…two updates in 3 days?? i’m getting back to my early engagement blogging routine (hopefully i’m not speaking too soon!).

this post is about jewelry. i am not necessarily a “girly girl” at heart (well, in thought and in action) but when it comes to clothes and jewelry, i am a HUGE GIRLY GIRL! so, the night that mason and i got engaged, my mom gave me my first bridal magazine and BAM – there was a picture of some beautiful earrings on one of the pages that i immediately tore out, circled and wrote “earrings” on in sharpie. it was also stuck in a pocket in my wedding folder as soon as it was purchased!

much to my dismay, i got online a few months later (after i found the dress of course) to look up the earrings i was already sold on, only to find this – http://www.pennylarsenjewelry.com/shop.html. Please, click on the link and look at the “taj mahal drop earrings” and you will see that my hopes and dreams were smashed to find that i would have to fork out $350 for the earrings of my dreams (not to mention all the other jewelry and accessories i was looking for). apparently penny larsen does not make jewelry for the budget conscious bride.

note: of course i would immediately rip out the earrings called “taj mahal drop earrings” as my favorite. these are the things that make mason cringe. ha!

BUT, i really had a feeling that someone could make these for a much better price, and i didn’t want to give up, which leads me to the good part of the blog!

this post is also to introduce you to Designs by Krissy. i was introduced to Designs by Krissy through a wedding blog i read online, and emailed her thinking she might be able to re-create the earrings i had been pining for since we got engaged. she emailed me back saying “you live in charlotte too??” which was perfect because i was able to meet her at amelie’s one saturday morning and actually see the first earring after it was completed to be sure it was what i wanted! i sent her the link above, and here is a side by side comparison of the original earrings with the finished product:

another note: these (above) are the things that make mason breathe normally again, after i figure out the cheapest possible way to get the initially stupid-expensive “necessity.” 🙂

now, my earrings definitely aren’t CLONES of the ones i pulled out of the magazine, but they turned out perfectly with the feel of my wedding…i didn’t need something overly fancy for my outdoor wedding and i told krissy to take creative freedom with what she thought looked best, telling her it didn’t have to look exactly like the link i sent. i also asked her to make me a cluster pearl bracelet which is also beautiful – and best of all, i can wear that all the time after the wedding!

so, for all you charlotte brides out there (and all you non-charlotte brides…krissy ships all over the place!): if you are looking for someone to create your own, one-of-a-kind jewelry for your wedding, check krissy out! she can also re-invent pieces that you already have or family pieces that you want taken apart and made into something new which is really cool. something old into something new! (sorry, i had to!)

i hope that you are having a great week! i have to be honest…i am not. i went to the eye doctor this morning for my third emergency appointment in 2 months because my contacts keep rubbing ulcers on my cornea! hopefully i will get rid of it this time, we are trying a different method! and my arthritis is beating me up lately, which isn’t very much fun, but i am trying to take it one day at a time and not overwhelm myself…that could be really easy to do if i thought about it for very long!

the good news is, we are getting married in 75 days AND we are house hunting and finding great things! i just know we will end up in the perfect place for us and *our* dog kasay. (i am getting used to saying “our”…mason will be happy about this post.)

i will update again sometime soon! lots to come on shoes and veils and the all-important DJ!! happy monday night!

I know, I know….shame on me for not blogging pretty much at all lately. I don’t even know how to explain myself, I am ashamed. But let’s move on!

After way too much time, I would like to present to you……our Save the Date postcard!

Yes, friends, that is the spot we will be getting married in at my parent’s home! And I cannot wait to share my invitations with you after I send them in a couple weeks because (hello!) they have the same theme carried in them! A lady at my mom’s church who is just getting into full-time photography took this picture for us and her husband put together the postcard and had it printed through the company that prints their programs at church! It was an awesome, less expensive option and they turned out GREAT!

It has been so much fun coming up with creative ways to do the things that I see in magazines or on blogs. You really can have most anything you want at your wedding if you are a) patient enough to shop around, b) resourceful with the people you know and the things they are good at doing and c) if you have a glass of wine at night sometimes when you get done with everything to keep from getting too overwhelmed. 🙂

Let’s see…what else can I share with you to make up for all this lost time??

Well, I have really great bridesmaid gift ideas too but I can’t share those because my lovely bridesmaids do look at this sometimes! I will share those after the wedding, along with everything else that’s top secret!

Here are some other creative things we have been working on…

My dad made wooden boxes for our centerpieces, and mom is staining them! That will still give the centerpieces a rustic feel but the flowers will make it look pretty and soft. Speaking of flowers, I have to share this particular blog I found with a beautiful, yet inexpensive way to use baby’s breath as a main “flower” in your wedding! This is going to be perfect for our outdoor wedding, but even indoors, there are gorgeous ways to use this inexpensive yet full and pretty flower option!

Since it’s hard to predict how hot or cool it may be at the end of September in North Carolina at 4:30 PM outside (but it’s safer to go with hot!), we are printing programs that double as fans – they will be similar to the picture above but not exactly…they will actually be three “tiered” and tied at the bottom so that people can fan them out and use them!

I also wanted to share a couple pictures from my first shower in Raleigh a few weeks ago with all my college friends!

The shower was at Coquette in Raleigh and the decor was great! My friend Melinda made the ruffly paper flowers and had picked up about 15 vintage vases and put them down the whole table, and even let me take them home at the end of the day to use at the wedding!! They also got cupcakes from a cupcake shop in Raleigh that were SO cute with wedding dresses and “M’s” on them. We had a great time and people were so generous with their gifts. Showers are just incredible…people are so giving and you just feel very overwhelmed with happiness of having all the people around you who you love! In fact, we realized we needded to register for more after that shower because we got so much, and I still have 3 to go plus the wedding!!

I hope you enjoyed this small update, and I hope I will have more time to keep this updated before the wedding!! Only 77 days to go…it’s crazy how quickly this engagement period has passed us by but it’s also really exciting to get to the fun showers and parties, and house hunting and dress fittings and pictures!! I hope you’re having a great weekend….we are house hunting all weekend so back to it!

It’s no secret that photography is a L♥VE of mine. That’s right…with a capitol L-O-V-E!

SO, do not be fooled into thinking that I didn’t do some major shopping here! And I have to tell you, it’s so hard to find your photographer because they are easy to get attached too, especially when there are so many good ones right under your nose! But from the time my parents gave me our wedding budget, I have said that photography is pretty close to (and probably is) the most important thing for me…after all, what do you have after it’s all over? Blurred memories of what just happened to you and a husband, the latter being the most important of course. 😉

I simply wanted something to remember the day by…okay, LOTS of wonderful, creative, artistic, beautiful somethings that captured the big picture and details of our wedding and our relationship! And we are confident that we have found that in Elizabeth Scott Photography.

I honestly can’t even remember exactly how I found Leslie & Matt, but I think it was on a vendors list on mywedding.com or something like that…I ran across them and looked at their stuff and really wanted to meet them! I must have emailed at least 20 photographers (no joke!) and met with a handful in person, all who were great and wonderful at what they do but Leslie & Matt seemed like a perfect fit when we met them at a Barnes & Noble coffee shop in what turned out to be a crazy snow storm this year! And as I’m sure you can agree, they did an amazing job with our engagement photos! We are so happy with our choice and I am so excited that they will be spending these important days with us!